Man killed, woman hurt in I-405 rollover crash

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 28, 2016

A driver died and a passenger was injured in a single-car rollover crash on I-405 Tuesday evening.

The driver is identified as Maurice Santez Starks, 30, of Northeast Portland. The injured passenger is identified as Krystle Lenae Webster, 26, of Northeast Portland. Her injuries are not expected to be life-threatening.

According to police, at 9:57 p.m. on Dec. 26, North Precinct officers responded to the report of a single vehicle crash on the off-ramp from I-405 northbound/Fremont Bridge onto North Kerby Avenue.

Officers and medical personnel arrived and found the male driver in his 30s deceased and a female passenger in her 20s injured. The passenger was transported by ambulance to a Portland hospital for treatment to serious injuries.

The Traffic Division’s Major Crash Team is conducting the investigation. Preliminary information indicates that Starks was driving a white 2007 Saturn Ion at a high rate of speed as he took the Kerby off-ramp and failed to negotiate the sweeping curve, impacting the barrier and going over the barrier into the oncoming lane of traffic, striking another barrier.

Investigators believe speed was a factor in the crash and are awaiting toxicology results, which are expected to take several weeks.

Both the on-ramp and off-ramp at North Kerby Avenue and Cook Street were closed for several hours for the investigation.

The death was the third traffic fatality in three days in Portland. He was also the 44th person killed in a crash in the city this year. That is seven more than the 37 killed in all of 2015.

The driver’s death is the 44th traffic fatality in the City of Portland in 2016.